You wouldn’t think it’d be so hard to watch stuff then bang out a crappy review…
So, it’s been a bit since the last post, and here’s what I’ve been watching.
Wild Target was a fun little British romp. Our story is thus. World-class assassin Victor Maynard (Bill Nighy) has been given the job of taking out resident kleptomaniac Rose (Emily Blunt) after suitably evil Ferguson (Rupert Everett) gets duped in an art forgery scheme. While he’s on the job, he’s interrupted by the backup hit squad who he ends up eliminating in the confusion. It’s also around this time that we’re introduced to the bungling accidental assassin-protégé Tony (Rupert Grint). In the process of accidentally saving Rose, Victor’s life is subsequently turned upside down, and when he continues to not get the job done, the nearly-as-world-class assassin Hector Dixon (Martin Freeman) is dispatched to finish the job, which included the satisfying prospect of taking out Victor as well.
We found the acting and the dialog quite enjoyable, the character quirks are aplenty, and the movie was fun to watch as a result. I’d recommend giving this a go.
The same can be said for Crazy Stupid Love. Cal (Steve Carell) finds out early that his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) has cheated on him with David (Kevin Bacon) and wants a divorce. Cal isn’t much on confrontation and moves swiftly toward the exit. While drowning his sorrows at the local watering hole, he observes and eventually meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a massive player who can’t help but feel pity and an extreme sense of obligation to help Cal find and reclaim his manhood. During the course of all of this suave manliness and conquest, Jacob meets Hannah (Emma Stone) who makes him see that there could be more to life than a string of meaningless one-night-stands.
The comedy is great, the dramatic moments were touching, and there are a few surprised that really bring this story together well. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I’d recommend watching this one (even at theater prices).
Hardcore fans and young children need only apply for a watching of The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I’d heard going into this one that “Yawn Shredder” might be a more suitable name for the ship, so accordingly, I set my expectations low. Unfortunately I wasn’t disappointed. It felt thrown together for the sake of making it, and probably with the hopes of making money. The story drug along, and the tense and dramatic bits weren’t all that tense or dramatic. More on that in a bit. We have the return of the two young characters from the first film, along with brief cameos by the rest, and the introduction of the annoying Eustace (Will Poulter, much better in Son of Rambow), cousin to Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes). They arrive back in Narnia via a pretty cool effect involving a painting and find themselves on board the Dawn Treader, captained by none other than Caspian (Ben Barnes). Usually when they’re sucked in to Narnia, it’s because of problems. There aren’t any this time, says the cheerful captain. Peace rules the realm. “So why are we here,” they ask themselves, and we immediately find out that well, ok, not EVERYTHING is ok, as there happen to be seven missing members of royalty, which they’re currently investigating. They’ll be sailing the very edges of the map on their quest which involves, among other things, half-baked tests of their resolve. Quick spoiler alert here. Lucy is facing one of these tense and dramatic tests, which lasts all of about 5 minutes and is more of a prophetic dream sequence than the grueling test we’d been promised earlier. At some point, perhaps during the good part, I’d already dozed off for a small snooze, waking for the cheezy finale.
Watch it if you must, but try not to spend too much money or time doing it.
Lastly, who could resist a movie about a pair of 20-something High School students in the type of high school that only exists in movies?! Ok, that opening line’s a bit snarky, but honestly, if we’re expected to believe these people are in high school, we must believe that they’re either really stupid, or that they go to the progeria academy.
Moving on…
Beastly is, of course, a different take on the classic Beauty & the Beast tale, where our strapping moderately young Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is the handsome, superficial and arrogant guy who is transformed into a fugly man in order to teach him valuable lessons about life and love. The aforementioned unrealistic high school is populated full of stereotypes, including a whole host of attractive and wealthy “kids”, plus a bunch of dressed-down-yet-still-largely-attractive nerdy types (who’re all still wealthy), and they all go to school in building that is architecturally a looong way from something that might be considered a school.
I digress… again…
Anyhoo, Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen) is the school witch/outcast who Kyle pisses off and who curses him to a life of ugliness. He can undo the curse if he can just get someone to love his ugly ass in a year’s time, as marked by a pretty cool tattoo on his forearm. Enter Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) who is supposed to be a nerdier type at the beginning. Through a bizarre string of events, she ends up more or less captive at a fairly lavish apartment Kyle’s dad has put him in out of embarrassment, and that ultimately allows love to blossom. As movies go, it was ok, and nobody bursts out into song for the duration. We got this one for a buck from the local Red Box. I could take it or leave it though.
